Meeting the Challenge: Getting Parents Involved in Schools
Parent involvement continues to challenge practitioners engaged in
school reform despite being a required component of many school
improvement initiatives-from Title I Schoolwide Programs to federally
mandated school improvement plans. The benefits of parent involvement
are clear: A growing body of research shows that successful parent
involvement improves not only student behavior and attendance but also
positively affects student achievement. Yet many schools continue to
struggle with defining and measuring meaningful parental involvement,
and many don't feel that their efforts are successful. A recent survey
of American teachers revealed that 20 percent of new teachers and
nearly one fourth of principals identify their relationships with
parents as a cause of significant stress in their jobs (MetLife, 2005).
In this month's newsletter, we offer research-based advice and
resources designed to help schools and districts foster successful
parent involvement.
What is successful parent involvement?
Successful
parent involvement can be defined as the active, ongoing participation
of a parent or primary caregiver in the education of his or her child.
Parents can demonstrate involvement at home-by reading with their
children, helping with homework, and discussing school events-or at
school, by attending functions or volunteering in classrooms. Schools
with involved parents engage those parents, communicate with them
regularly, and incorporate them into the learning process.
What are the barriers to successful parent involvement?
Schools
often don't engage parents because they don't think they can. "A lot of
it is perception. Teachers perceive that families don't want to be
involved when, in fact, families don't know how to be involved," says
Karen Salinas, communications director for the Center on School,
Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University.
For their part, parents are sometimes hesitant to become involved in
school because they don't have extra time or because they don't speak
fluent English. But "the biggest problem is the disconnect between the
school and the families," says Salinas. "Parents believe that they are
not welcome. It comes in part from their own education history. They
often have had a less-than-satisfactory experience with their own
schooling, and so they don't feel like [being involved] is guaranteed
to be a good experience."
Despite these communication barriers, both schools and parents want
the relationship to improve, if only for the benefit of students. A
2003 analysis of more than 25 public opinion surveys by Public Agenda,
a nonpartisan public opinion research organization, found that 65
percent of teachers say their students would do better in school if
their parents were more involved, and 72 percent of parents feel that
children whose parents are not involved sometimes "fall through the
cracks" in school (Johnson & Duffett, 2003).
How do schools foster successful parent involvement?
Schools
successful in engaging parents start by going beyond narrow definitions
of involvement. They don't just count the number of parents who attend
the spaghetti dinner or volunteer at the book fair. They don't focus on
requirements such as having parents sign reports cards. Instead, they
start with a belief that student success is a shared interest of both
school and family, envision parents as partners in the learning
process, and then identify concrete ways that partnership can be
activated.
- Improve Communication
Effective communication requires a
two-way flow of information. While most schools develop efficient
structures for getting information out-such as newsletters, Web sites,
and press releases-far fewer develop similar structures to ensure that
feedback from parents is actively solicited.
For some schools,
improving communication involves technology such as e-mail messages and
interactive phone systems. When Stonewall Jackson High School in
Manassas, Virginia, implemented an interactive voicemail, for instance,
the school saw parental attendance at freshmen orientation jump from 50
to 1,000 (Viadero, 1997). Parents can use the system, called
ParentLink, to hear messages from teachers about what is happening in
their children's classes and access their children's grades and
attendance records.
Other schools try to view parent involvement through the parents'
eyes. B.F. Day Elementary in Seattle, for example, holds parent
meetings and workshops not at the school but in a Family Center that
operates in the neighborhood where many of their bilingual families
live.
Of course, the use of any strategy must be tailored to the school's
population. If families don't have reliable access to the Internet,
e-mail won't work. A phone message in English won't communicate much to
parents who speak only Spanish. The bottom line for schools is to
communicate using strategies that convey what is important in a way
that can be heard by parents and families and invites them to respond.
Resources
Maryland's Parent Advisory Council formed a subcommittee on
nontraditional school-parent communication.
The National Network of Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins University offers school-family communication suggestions and success stories.
For more information on family involvement in Seattle Public Schools, visit the district's Web site.
- Teach Both Parents and Teachers
We know that one thing
that keeps parents from being involved is their discomfort with
schools. And that discomfort often stems from parents not knowing how
to be involved. Schools with a commitment to parent involvement take an
active role in helping parents learn a variety of ways to be involved.
The benefits for students are proven: A recent review of parent
involvement research found that parent-child reading activities produce
a significant improvement in children's language and reading skills
from preschool through high school (Sheldon & Epstein, 2005);
another study finds a strong positive effect on student achievement
when parents work with students on homework (Van Voorhis, 2003).
Many schools use workshops and other school-based programs to help
parents learn about what goes on in classrooms. For example, Clara E.
Westropp School in Cleveland, Ohio, held monthly family reading nights.
Parents go to the elementary school and read with their children as
well as speak with teachers about reading and reading strategies
(Epstein & Salinas, 2004). Even traditional involvement strategies
present teaching opportunities. Sending home a "weekly work folder" is
one positive step, but providing parents with specific information
about what to look for in the student work goes one step further in
communicating what's important.
The National Network of Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins
University has designed a useful teacher-parent partnership process
called Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS). TIPS aims to
forge a three-way relationship between teachers, parents, and their
children through a creative approach to homework. Among its goals are
encouraging parents and children to talk regularly about schoolwork,
sharing ideas, gathering reactions, interviewing, or otherwise
encouraging interaction between student and family members. TIPS also
aims to keep assignments linked to real-life situations and "enable
parents and teachers to frequently communicate about children's work,
progress, and problems" (National Network of Partnership Schools,
2005). Some studies show secondary school homework assignments that
require parent-student interaction predict higher levels of reading
achievement (Sheldon & Epstein, 2005).
Many teachers report feeling unprepared to effectively involve
parents. As a means of breaking down these barriers, teachers in the
Sacramento, California, area have been trained since 1998 to
participate in structured visits to their students' homes. The first
visit focuses on establishing trust, while later trips give teachers
and parents a chance to discuss ways in which parents can support
students with the material they are learning in school. The schools
involved in the program have seen a reduction in discipline problems
and increases in attendance rates, and also are starting to see
achievement gains.
Resources
In a joint project with the National Parent Teacher Association, the National Education Association has developed how-to guides for parents on ways to help their children succeed in school.
Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) Web site offers information on interactive homework.
The Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project in Sacramento tells how its vision led to statewide changes.
- Personalize
Successful parent-involvement programs
typically develop in response to a specific need in the school or its
community and are both focused and flexible in addressing that need. A
strategy that works in one school might not be the best choice for
another. For instance, while Sacajawea Elementary School in Seattle has
established a Parent Mentor program in which parents are designated to
contact other families to tell them about school activities, another
school in the same city, High Point Elementary, began a program that
allows parent volunteers to earn points toward rewards such as
computers and other educational materials. Both programs have been
recognized for dramatically increasing parent involvement.
Successful parent-school partnerships are not stand-alone, add-on
programs. Instead, they are well integrated with the school's overall
mission. Typically, quality programs are developed in collaboration
with parents and reflect their needs and interests. Offering child
care, translators, and multiple opportunities to hear information go a
long way toward expressing a school's genuine interest in parent input.
Resources
The U.S. Department's Family Involvement in Children's Education offers a useful primer for how to set up family-involvement partnerships, offering guidelines and case studies.
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) published Parent Partners: Using Parents to Enhance Education, a booklet that examines how and why schools should foster family involvement.
Note: NWREL's Parent Partners booklet has recently been updated and is called Building Trust with Schools and Diverse Families: A Foundation for Lasting Partnerships.
Conclusion
Parents are the most important partner in a child's education and
schools can reap large dividends by capitalizing on their support. To
be sure, such relationships require a lot of work by both educators and
parents. Although success will not come easy, the rewards are too great
for a school not to try.
References
Epstein, J. L., & Salinas, K. C. (2004). Partnering with families
and communities. Educational Leadership, 61(8). 12-18. Retrieved August
4, 2005, from http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/success_di/el200405_epstein.html
Johnson, J., & Duffett, A. (2003). Where we are now: 12
things you need to know about public opinion and public schools. New
York: Public Agenda.
MetLife. (2005). The MetLife survey of the American teacher:
Transitions and the role of supportive relationships; A survey of
teachers, principals and students. New York: Author. Retrieved August
4, 2005, from http://www.metlife.com/Applications/Corporate/WPS/CDA/PageGenerator/0,1674,P2315,00.html
National Network of Partnership Schools. (2005). Overview of TIPS interactive homework. Retrieved August 4, 2005, from http://www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/tips/index.htm
Sheldon, S. B., & Epstein, J. L. (2005). School programs of
family and community involvement to support children's reading and
literacy development across the grades. In J. Flood & P. Anders
(Eds.), The literacy development of students in urban schools: Research
and policy. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Van Voorhis, F. L. (2003). Interactive homework in middle school:
Effects on family involvement and students' science achievement.
Journal of Educational Research, 96(6), 323-339.
Viadero, D. (1997, June 4). School hot line found to boost parent
involvement. Education Week on the Web.
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